Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S269760AbUJMRbm (ORCPT ); Wed, 13 Oct 2004 13:31:42 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S269761AbUJMRbm (ORCPT ); Wed, 13 Oct 2004 13:31:42 -0400 Received: from chaos.analogic.com ([204.178.40.224]:2688 "EHLO chaos.analogic.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S269760AbUJMRbg (ORCPT ); Wed, 13 Oct 2004 13:31:36 -0400 Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 13:31:34 -0400 (EDT) From: "Richard B. Johnson" Reply-To: root@chaos.analogic.com To: Linux kernel Subject: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 3498 Lines: 92 Hello DOS haters! I used to boot my system as: aic7xxx [SCSI 0] /dev/sda LILO boot record /dev/sda1 DOS drive C: /dev/sda5 DOS drive D: [SCSI 1] /dev/sdb1 ext2 root "/" /dev/sdb2 swap-file [SCSI 2] /dev/sdc1 ext3 fs /dev/sdc2 swap-file /dev/sdc3 ext3 fs /dev/sdb1 / ext2 rw,noatime 0 1 /dev/sdc1 /alt ext2 rw,noatime 0 2 /dev/sdb2 none swap defaults 0 2 /dev/sdc2 none swap defaults 0 2 /dev/sdc3 /home/users ext2 rw,noatime 0 2 none /proc proc defaults 0 2 /dev/sda1 /dos/drive_C msdos defaults 0 2 /dev/sda5 /dos/drive_D msdos defaults 0 2 Then I added a completely different hard-disk to boot the following: LABEL=/ (/dev/hda2) / ext3 defaults 1 1 none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=666 0 0 none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 none /proc proc defaults 0 0 none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0 /dev/sdb1 /home/project ext2 defaults 0 0 /dev/sda1 /dos/drive_C msdos defaults 0 0 /dev/sda5 /dos/drive_D msdos defaults 0 0 /dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/sdb2 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/sdc2 swap swap defaults 0 0 Only the DOS partitions and the swap are used in this new configuration. This is a new "Fedora Linux 2" installation on a completely different IDE hard disk, in which I have to enable boot disks in the BIOS to boot the new system. Immediately after installing the new system I reverted (in the BIOS) to the original to make sure that I was still able to boot the old system and the DOS partition. Everything was fine. Then I installed linux-2.6.8 after building a new kernel with the old ".config" file used as `make oldconfig`. Everything was fine after that, also. I have now run for about a week and I can't boot the DOS partition anymore! I can boot from a DOS diskette and DOS sees 'C:', but not 'D:'. DOS 'thinks' that C: is bootable but I get "Missing operating system" when it attempts to boot. I have executed `fdisk /mbr`, and `sys C:`, as well as Norton's `ndd`. Everything seems to 'think' that the system should boot. However, it doesn't. I can boot Linux from an emergency floppy and re-run LILO to make my first SCSI bootable. It will boot Linux, but not DOS. I can also boot DOS from a floppy and access the "C:" partition, but not the "D:" one. It looks like the new operating system, linux-2.6.8, has done something bad when it used my SCSI disks for swap. I can copy everything from C: and D: from within Linux and then re-do the DOS partitions, BUT.... bad stuff will happen again unless the cause is found. I never had any such problem with linux-2.4.26 and below. I could even execute dosemu and run DOS compilers, editors, and assemblers. Not anymore. DOSEMU-1.3.1 won't even compile with the new 'C' compiler, but that's another problem. Cheers, Dick Johnson Penguin : Linux version 2.6.8 on an i686 machine (5537.79 BogoMips). Note 96.31% of all statistics are fiction. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/